460 Columbia St W | 12 + 12 + 12 fl | U/C

[panamaniac]

When the person says that rentals would “detract from the ownership feel of the area”, does he mean that rentals would attract less well-off people, possibly including immigrants? Or something else?

I think you've pretty well got it, although that quote is unusually direct - the usual coded language is to refer to proposed developments as  "changing the character of the neighbourhood".  It doesn't have to be rental apartments - you can get the same thing when townhouses are proposed in an area of SFHs, for example.